Monday, February 9, 2015

Hoptologist Light Session IPA


The third and final beer brewed during the triple-brew weekend was a session IPA.  A couple of years ago, I brewed an IPA patterned after my favorite IPA, Bell’s Hopslam.  It was never meant to be a clone but ended up being a fairly good substitute.  It was probably the best beer I had ever brewed.  The problem was that if I drank more than two, I stood a very good chance of falling over.  She weighed in at 7.5% ABV but drank like a 5% beer.

I set out trying to craft a beer with all of the elements of “B-24 Hoptologist” in a smaller package.  I basically cut the grain bill in half and cut the hops by about 40% and thus came up with B-38 “Hoptologist light”.  This one is heavy on the hop flavor and easy on the booze.

 

Brew Date: 8/8/2014
Beer Number: B38

Beer Name: “Hoptologist Light”
Type: American Pale Ale

Primary Fermenter: 6 ½ gal. glass carboy (76 days)
Secondary Fermenter: N/A

Volume: 5.5 gal.
OG: 1.043

FG: 1.008
Expected IBU: 46

Expected SRM: 7
Alcohol %: 4.59%

Calories: 140/12 oz.
Ingredients:

7 lbs. Briess 2 row pale
1 lbs. white wheat malt

5.6 oz. Crystal 40L
5.6 oz. Crystal 60L

4.0 oz. Carapils
14g Centennial pellet hops (6% AA) @ 60 min

7g Simcoe pellet hops (14% AA) FWH
7g Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) FWH

7g Simcoe pellet hops (14% AA)  @ 15 min.
7g Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) @ 15 min.

14g Simcoe pellet hops (14% AA)  @ 15 min.
14g Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) @ 15 min.

1 oz. Simcoe leaf hops (14% AA) keg hop
1 oz. Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) keg hop

US05 Yeast
5.7 oz. clover honey

 Step by Step Process:

Wort

  1. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher (double-crushed the wheat)
  2. Heated 11.19 qts. strike water to @175F and poured into mash tun
  3. Allowed tun to settle to 155F
  4. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @152F
  5. mashed @ 60
  6. Poured 0.9 gal. 170F water to tun
  7. Recirculated @ 2 qts.
  8. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
  9. While draining, fired burner and set heat on med.
  10. When empty, filled with 2.6 gal. of 170F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
  11. When empty, filled with 2.6 gal. of 170F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
  12. Collected a total of @ 8.0 gal. wort
  13. Brought to a boil and added 14 g. Centennial pellet hops as soon as hot break formed
  14. Boiled for 60 minutes, following the hopping schedule above
  15. Using wort chiller, cooled to 80F in @ 30 min.
  16. Covered and allowed to cool overnight
  17. The next morning, OG reading was 1.038 (target of 1.046)
  18. Boiled 2 cups water and then dissolved 5.7 oz. in the pre-boiled water and transferred to kettle
  19. Transferred to sanitized fermenter and placed in fermentation chamber with frozen bottles
  20. Sprinkled packet of US05 yeast onto wort surface at 63F
  21. Activity visible within 24 hours
  22. Changed water bottles every 1 – 2 days


Kegging (10/24/14)

  1. Transferred into sanitized keg
  2. Set regulator to 16 psi at 34F for quick carbonation
  3. Final target is 2.5 volumes CO2 (10 psi at 34F)


Keg Hopping (10/24/14)

  1. Sanitized new large mesh bag in star san and then squeezed out all liquid possible
  2. Sanitized a handful of marbles
  3. Placed marbles in bag and then placed 1 oz. Amarillo leaf and 1 oz. Simcoe leaf
  4. Tied mesh bag and placed in bottom of keg before transferring from fermenter
  5. Keg would not pour
  6. On 1/10/14, transferred to another sanitized keg and discovered that the mesh bag had sunk to the bottom and was sucked into the dip tube preventing the keg from pouring.
  7. Purged head-space with CO2

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